ADDRESS. 37 



•whicli when viewed in a telescope subtend an angle less than that sub- 

 tended by the light- wave at a distance equal to the diameter of the 

 objective. A method applicable not alone to celestial objects, but also to 

 spectral lines, and other questions of molecular physics. 



Along the older lines there has not been less activity ; by newer 

 methods, by the aid of larger or more accurately constructed instruments, 

 by greater refinement of analysis, knowledge has been increased, especially 

 in precision and minute exactness. 



Astronomy, the oldest of the sciences, has more than renewed her 

 youth. At no time in the past has she been so bright with unbounded 

 aspirations and hopes. Never were her temples so numerous, nor the 

 crowd of her votaries so great. The British Astronomical Association 

 formed within the year numbers already about 600 members. Happy is 

 the lot of those who are still on the eastern side of life's meridian ! 



Already, alas ! the original founders of the newer methods are falling 

 out — Kirchhoff, Angstrom, D 'Arrest, Secchi, Draper, Becquerel ; but 

 their places are more than filled ; the pace of the race is gaining, but the 

 goal is not and never will be in sight. 



Since the time of Newton our knowledge of the phenomena of Nature 

 has wonderfully increased, but man asks, perhaps more earnestly now 

 than then, what is the ultimate reality behind the reality of the per- 

 ceptions ? Are they only the pebbles of the beach with which we have 

 been playing ? Does not the ocean of ultimate reality and truth lie beyond ? 



